Introduction
In the two previous chapters we have the record of Satan’s activity, through his chosen instruments, in his attempt to place his yoke upon all the inhabitants of the earth. All his malice and hatred are directed against God, against His Christ, and against His people. For the moment, as also when our Lord was crucified, he seems to be victorious; he has asserted his power, and his sway is almost undisputed. Evil, and evil in its own native blackness and corruption, is triumphant.
Revelation 14:1
In contrast with this, chapter 14 opens like a magnificent sunrise after a stormy night. It is a burst of light which contains the promise that all the clouds that had obscured the scene will be swept away. “And I looked, and, lo, a” [rather, the] “Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name [The preferred reading is, “His name and the name of His Father.”] written in their foreheads” (vs. 1). This, as is often the case in this book, is an anticipative vision, revealing the end for the comfort of the saints before the judgments are detailed which lead up to this point. In Revelation 13 the frightful oppression and persecution of the saints is seen; and in this vision they are displayed as having been tried and come forth as gold, and as the result, enjoying a special place of association with the Lamb.
Several points in the vision must be observed. As above indicated, it is the Lamb, the Lamb already known as presented in this book. But here He is seen in a new place. In Revelation 5 He is revealed as standing in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders. Here He stands on mount Zion. John saw Him first “as it had been slain” (Ch. 5:6); and we have thus three successive stages marked: first, the cross; next, His exaltation to the throne of God; and, lastly, His being set as God’s King upon His holy hill of Zion (Psa. 2). For Zion is the seat of royal grace from David’s time and onwards (see 1 Chron. 21; Psa. 48; compare Heb. 12:22); and consequently Christ is here displayed in the glory of His kingdom. The vision overleaps all the intervening sorrows and judgments and, as in the scene on the mount of transfiguration, permits us to behold His majesty and glory in the seat of His earthly rule and dominion.
There are with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand. Who are these? They are not, though the same symbolical number, (Twelve is the number representing the perfection of administrative government in man (in Christ). Twelve times twelve will exhibit this in intensified perfection.) those sealed from the twelve tribes in Revelation 7; for the elect remnant out of the ten tribes will not be restored to the land of Israel until after Messiah shall sit upon the throne of His glory; whereas these are the preserved of the two tribes already in the land, those who will have passed through the sorrows of the period before the appearing of Christ, and hence termed “the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb” (vs. 4). The ten tribes will not pass through the unparalleled troubles spoken of in Matthew 24:15-28, all of which will have their center in Jerusalem and will be, as to the Jews, confined to the land. In the restoration from Babylon, of which we read in Ezra, only two tribes were involved, saving individuals from other tribes, Judah and Benjamin. It was to these two tribes in the land that Christ was presented; but when He came to His own His own received Him not, and on them therefore lay the guilt of His rejection and crucifixion. By these same two tribes, that is, by the mass and their leaders, the antichrist will be received; and thus it will be upon them that the chastisements of that day will descend, when the tribulation will be so great that no flesh would be saved, if for the elect’s sake the days were not shortened. The true remnant who in the midst of the apostasy of their brethren, as well as of the seduction and oppression of the antichrist, cleave to God and His truth and are saved out of this time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7), these 144,000 are the elect. Their weeping had endured for the night, but joy had come in the morning with the interposition of their glorious and looked-for Messiah. (See Isa. 25:9.) In this scene we see the full issue of God’s grace through their sufferings, in their being made the companions of the Lamb amid the glories of His kingdom.
They are distinguished, moreover, by having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. The name, or the mark, of the beast had been written on the foreheads (or on the hands) of his followers—a sign of their apostasy, and of the degrading yoke which they had accepted; but these, the 144,000, have the name of the Lamb, the expression of their allegiance and of their moral likeness to the One they follow, and the name of His (not their, because they, whatever their place, have not the Spirit of adoption) Father written on their foreheads. They had openly confessed the name of God and the Lamb, and had suffered, short of death, (This expression, “short of death,” should be well weighed and examined. As pointed out afterward, they are said to be “without fault,” (vs. 5) a word used of Christ (Heb. 9:14), of the church (Eph. 5:27), and of Christians in their final presentation before God (Col. 1:22). It is a question, therefore, whether this company may not have passed either through death, or by being changed, into a resurrection—not a heavenly, but a resurrection-condition.) as Christ had suffered through the confession of the name of His Father. (See John 5:1718.) They had therefore come into His former place on earth, in regard to His testimony, however feebly they had occupied it; and now in the abounding grace of God their foreheads are adorned with the name of the Lamb and of His Father, a proclamation to all of their past fidelity and of the rich recompense which had been awarded to them by Him for whom they had suffered.
Revelation 14:2-3
It is in connection with the appearance of this elect remnant with the Lamb on mount Zion that John “heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and [he says] I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed [This should really be rendered “bought.” It is remarkable and very significant that the word redemption is not found in this book. It is always agorazein, and never lutroun.] from the earth” (vss. 2-3). Who these heavenly choristers are we are not told. The voice is “from heaven” (vs. 2) and the song is sung before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders. But whoever may be these celebrants of praise, the subject would seem from the connection to be that of the victorious issue of the sufferings of this chosen remnant traced back, doubtless, to God’s grace and the blood of the Lamb. (Compare Rev. 5:9-10.) This is the more evident from the fact that no one could learn that song but the 144,000; for none but they had passed through the sorrows or had experienced the grace connected with their deliverance. The song suited to them in their circumstances was raised in heaven; and they, as in communion with the mind of God, caught up and repeated the strains. Happy are the saints of any period when they are enabled to apprehend in any measure the mind of God concerning His beloved Son, and when, with adoring hearts, they can utter, in the power of the Spirit, His worthiness and praise.
Revelation 14:4
Their characteristics follow. First, they had not defiled themselves with women; “for they are virgins” (vs. 4). In a scene where all had corrupted themselves they had been kept pure, pure from all the contamination by which they had been surrounded, guarding themselves from all the seductions of the antichrist, and keeping themselves alone for Him for whom they waited. They were, it might be said, espoused to Christ, and they walked as chaste virgins amid surrounding defilements. (Compare 2 Cor. 11:2-3.) Then they “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” (vs. 4) That is, they are His companions in His earthly kingdom. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read of the companions of Christ (Heb. 1:9; Heb. 3:14 (This may be rendered, “for we are made companions of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”); but these “companions” embrace all Christians; whereas in our scripture they are confined to this suffering, but now victorious, remnant. Surely they will also confess that the sufferings of the past are not worthy to be compared with the glorious position on which they will have then entered. To have the privilege of being the constant and intimate attendants upon the King in His glory will be the sum and perfection of earthly bliss.
Moreover, they “were redeemed” (vs. 4) (bought from) among men, being the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb. As with every class of the redeemed in all ages and dispensations, so with these, the blood of Christ alone constitutes their ransom price. Sold through their sins (Isa. 50:1) into the hand of the enemy, nothing but the precious blood of Christ can redeem any from his power; and hence it is that the fact of the redemption of this elect remnant is here emphasized. As thus “bought,” they are the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb, not firstfruits in the sense in which Christ is (1 Cor. 15), or in which His people are (James 1:18), but the firstfruits of the new scene into which they have been introduced by Messiah’s appearing and kingdom. (It may be also that the term “firstfruits” is used in relation to the harvest in verses 15-16.) In this way they become, as it were, the nucleus of the chosen people when God sets His King upon His holy hill of Zion.
Revelation 14:5
Once more we are told that “in their mouth was found no guile:” [The better reading is “falsehood”] “for they are without fault” (vss. 5). (The words, “Before the throne of God,” should be omitted, as also, we judge, the word “for” at the commencement of the clause.) The question is put in Psalm 15, “Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?” (vs. 1) The answer (among others) is, “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” (vs. 2) It is with this last characteristic that the 144,000 correspond, and they are upon God’s holy hill of Zion with the Lamb. Having truth in the inward parts, no lie was found in their mouth. Lastly it is added, “they are without fault.” The word rendered “without fault” is the same as is applied to our Lord in Hebrews 9:14, and 1 Peter 1:19, and given as “without spot.” They are therefore meet for the presence of Him whose companions, through His grace, they are. If spotless, and hence qualified to stand in His immediate presence, it could only be, let it be forever repeated, through the applied efficacy of His own most precious blood. That, and that alone, cleanses from all sin.
What encouragement, it may be added, does this blessed scene afford. In Revelation 13, as has been remarked, Satan and Satan’s power are to the outward eye triumphant; but here we behold the issue in the exaltation of the Lamb in the very place where the antichrist had ruled; and in the safety, blessing, and triumph of His redeemed from among men. His sheep never perish, for none can pluck them out of His hand.
Three Angelic Proclamations and Two Judgments
The whole of this chapter forms a kind of parenthesis. In Revelation 12 and 13 the hand of God is not apparent in the events related, although He reveals His own thoughts concerning His people, and concerning the embodiment of Satan’s power in the revived Roman empire together with its head, and the antichrist. At the commencement of Revelation 14, as already seen, we have an anticipative exhibition of the blessed remnant who will be preserved through the fiery trial of that day, and who, associated with the Lamb on mount Zion, will have the privilege of following Him whithersoever He goeth. Thereupon, coming now to our scripture, there is a solemn call to repentance, and the announcement of coming judgment upon the different forms of evil which have corrupted the earth. It is not that the judgments are yet actually executed; they are rather warnings of what is at hand, visions of what is impending— vouchsafed to John, and here recorded for the comfort and guidance of believers in all ages.
Revelation 14:6-7
A “day of grace” always precedes judgment. This is shown in the following words: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, [In the correct reading the word “dwell” is not the same as that hitherto noticed as having a moral force. The reason for the change lies probably in the fact that the proclamation has an universal importance.] and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (vss. 6-7). On the very surface it is clear that this is not the gospel of the grace of God. It contains, indeed, but two things; first, a command to fear God and to give glory to Him in the prospect of coming judgment; and, secondly, an appeal to men, on the ground of creation relationship, to worship the Creator. Doubtless it is termed the everlasting gospel, because, apart from all special revelations of God, as to Israel and to Christians, and hence beyond all dispensations, God has ever borne to men the relationship of a Creator to His creatures, and as such is entitled to their reverence and adoration. (Compare Rom. 1:18-23.) But man has utterly failed in his responsiblity as a creature and consequently is, on that ground alone, exposed to judgment. (Another has said, “The everlasting gospel is the Seed of the woman that shall bruise the serpent’s head; that is, the declaration that the Lord shall destroy with power when He comes in judgment. It is the announcement that the hour of His judgment is come, the unchanging good news from the beginning and onward.”)
Revelation 14:8
Then, “there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (vs. 8). The moral character of Babylon and the details of her judgment are found in Revelation 17-18. Any remarks therefore will be reserved till these portions of the book are reached, contenting ourselves now with calling attention to the fact that Babylon represents the religious corruptress of the earthand is in fact what Rome has ever been, and what Babylon will yet more manifestly be after Laodicea is rejected as God’s responsible witness on the earth. Then she will be “the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,” (Ch. 17:5) and it is on her as such that her righteous doom is here proclaimed.
Revelation 14:9-11
The civil power comes next under the eye of God, and hence there follows the third angel, “saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” (vss. 9-11). What a contrast between God’s thoughts and those of man! On earth men may agree to cast off all fear of God, to profess to ignore His very existence and to accept the rule of Satan; but the time is coming when God will intervene, and this solemn warning is written for all who will heed it, that judgment, if delayed, will surely fall upon all who accept the yoke and servitude of the beast. It is instructive, moreover, to note in a day when universalism is so popular, even among professing Christians, the character of the judgment. True that it falls upon a class; but if there were only some who will have to endure their punishment for “ages of ages” and who will “have no rest day nor night,” (vs. 11) the contention that there is no such thing as “eternal punishment” is utterly disproved. Note also that wherever man takes God’s place in the soul, wherever men concede to man what belongs to God alone, there is morally the same guilt as that on which these terrible judgments are here pronounced.
Revelation 14:12
It is easy to understand that the faith of the saints in this terrible time of the display of Satan’s power will be subjected to no ordinary test. It is in view of this that the Spirit of God adds, “Here is the patience [endurance] of the saints: they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (vs. 12). (The words “here are” before “they that,” as in the English version, should be omitted. The last clause of the verse is simply descriptive of the character of the saints.) These saints are, in fact, the Jewish remnant, those who cleave to the commandments of God as given in the old dispensation and who believe in Jesus as the coming Messiah in spite of the pretensions of the antichrist. Tried to the utmost, their constancy will be seen in their holding fast to the Word of God, and to their faith in Jesus all through this period of darkness and of the frightful energy of evil.
Revelation 14:13
Coupled with this, another class, or a class from among these, comes into view. To keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and consequently to refuse to render homage to the beast or to his image, will be to incur the penalty of death, and as a consequence many will suffer martyrdom. (See Rev. 20:4.) Now death to Jewish saints would be the loss of their special blessings connected with the hope of the coming of their glorious Messiah, of the establishment of His kingdom in power, and of His dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. (Compare Psa. 88.) It is concerning this class, and the frustration of their earthly hopes, that John receives a special commandment from heaven to write, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them” (vs. 13). Man may be permitted to curse, and to put them to death; but God declares that they are blessed. All who have ever died in the Lord are blessed; absent from the body, they are present with the Lord; but the blessedness of this scripture applies to those whose hopes are not heavenly but earthly, to those who look for blessings on earth under Emmanuel rather than to be with Him in heaven. Cut off from the earth, they are blessed of God, and the Spirit declares it so that they may have rest from their labors; and while not permitted to see the fruit of their activities on earth, their works shall follow them in heaven. There they will, by God’s special grace, reap the reward of their toils. Further, it is revealed (Rev. 20), that they will have the special privilege of being included in the first resurrection, and thus, to be sharers with the heavenly saints in reigning with Christ as seen in verses 4-6. There is another possible interpretation of these words. Immediately following, we have the coming of the Lord in discriminating judgment; and it may be that the blessing pronounced upon those who have died in the Lord [so they are divinely estimated] during the sway of the antichrist, refers to their public owning and recompense as seen in Revelation 20. The reader must examine and weigh these interpretations.
Revelation 14:14-15
The close is once more reached in the next vision. (See Rev. 11:15-18.) The Man-child, caught up to God’s throne, now returns in judgment; and the judgment He will execute is of a two-fold character, here described under the figures of a “harvest” and a “vintage.” First, we have the description of the Reaper: “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle” (vs. 14). Both the manner of His advent— on the cloud—and the title —the Son of Man— proclaim unmistakably the person of the Reaper. It is the rejected Jesus who, refused by the Jews when presented to them as the Messiah, took up the wider title of the Son of Man (See Psa. 8, Matt. 16:20,27), under which all things are put under His feet. The “golden crown” (vs. 14) not only speaks of His royal dignity, but also of the glory of that divine righteousness according to which everything will be both tested and judged, while the “sickle” (vs. 14) announces the immediate object of His return. He took the servant’s place when down here for the accomplishment of the will of God, so when He comes to execute the judgment written He will still occupy the same position. It is on this account that an angel is introduced, as coming out of the temple, and “crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe” (vs. 15).
Revelation 14:16
There is something sublime in the simple statement of obedience to this command: “And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped” (vs. 16). As to the character of the judgment here indicated, it may aid the reader to consult Joel 3:9-17 and Matthew 13:36-43. Two or three points may be noticed. It is the earth that is reaped, and hence it is men as men, not the Jewish nation especially, that are in question. Secondly, the angel who cried to Him that sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Thy sickle ... and reap,” (vs. 16) came out of the temple. The judgment therefore was to proceed according to the revealed character of Him whose habitation it was. Bearing these points in mind, it is easily understood that the judgment is of a discriminating character, gathering the wheat into His garner, and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. The Scriptures deal constantly with this aspect of the appearing of our Lord and Savior. In some of the similitudes of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13 it is found; so also in chapter 25, where the Lord, as the King, will gather all nations before the throne of His glory, and separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats (Matt. 25:31-46).
Revelation 14:17-19
The scene that follows, while related to the preceding one, has a different character. “And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to Him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in Thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in His sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God” (vss. 17-19). The first question to be answered is as to the angel that appears here as the executor of judgment. There cannot be a doubt that, although He is not named, it is also the Son of Man; for, as we read elsewhere, the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son, hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man (John 5:22-27). But He is here seen only as an angel, not merely in accordance with the symbology of the book, but because He comes as the divine instrument of God’s will in judgment upon the vine of the earth, and hence, in this case, comes out for this purpose from the temple, from God’s immediate presence. He is seen as the Son of Man when the judgment relates to the Gentiles, but here as an angel when the Jews are prominent before the mind. For what, we may now inquire, is set forth by the vine of the earth? The figure is familiar. Israel was a vine, brought out of Egypt, and planted in Canaan (Psa. 80), but when God looked for it to bring forth good grapes, nothing was found, notwithstanding all the culture it had received, but wild grapes (Isa. 5:1-7). It was on this account that Christ Himself replaced Israel, before God, as the vine: He became the true vine, of which His own were the branches (John 15). The vine of the earth therefore will be that which should have borne fruit for God; and is in the scene before us, inasmuch as it is the object of judgment, apostate Judaism with which the Gentiles, as we know, will be allied.
The character of the judgment is shown by the words, “the great winepress of the wrath of God.” (vs. 19) It is thus unsparing judgment (see Isa. 63:1-4) upon Messiah’s adversaries in connection with the establishment of His kingdom. (See, for example, Zech. 14; Rev. 19.)
Revelation 14:20
One thing more is to be gleaned from the last verse: “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs” (vs. 20). The term “without the city” indicates undoubtedly that the neighborhood of Jerusalem is the locality of this unmitigated vengeance. The prophet Joel agrees (as well as Isaiah and Zechariah) when he combines in one verse both the harvest and the vintage judgments (Joel 3:2-13). He specifies the valley of Jehoshaphat as the place where the nations, as well as the apostate Jews, with whom they will be associated, will be judged. The terrible character of the vengeance of that day is seen in the awful, if symbolic, statement concerning the blood that came out of the winepress, reaching unto the horse bridles, and extending to 1,600 furlongs; that is, as some have observed, to the whole length of the Holy Land.